Oilers' Lowe lobbies league for leniency

Oilers' General Manager Kevin Lowe has decided to lobby the league, both through the press as well as directly, to call less penalties on his team, mostly by accusing the Wings of diving.

April 29, Edmonton Journal: "I'm not saying we're innocent on the diving part," he began, "but Detroit has a lot of guys who are good at it. It goes hand-in-hand with experience, and I'm speaking from experience. We don't want this to become (a case) of whoever has the most clever diving (wins).

"Let's get rid of it right now. Both sides make a truce and just play the game honestly. We're not soccer," said Lowe, who has in fact sounded this alarm before.

Lowe's called the league to get clarification, and he also found out that the NHL won't fine MacTavish for his tirade against Mark Joanette and Dean Warren after Thursday's game.

In the same story, Dan Barnes explains why Lowe is using his "experience" to lobby the league:

On Friday MacTavish was adamant the league provide direction for his team. Because here's the rub. The Oilers feel they can beat Detroit if they're allowed to, well, beat on Detroit. Knowing how much physical contact they can get away with is vital to the success of their strategy.

The Oilers definitely want to establish their physical presence...and they want to get away with as much as they can. So MacTavish and Lowe are providing a double-whammy of gamesmanship.

MacTavish made sure to keep up the pace with his former teammate:

April 29, Edmonton Journal: "That's one of the issues," MacTavish said. "Matt's first penalty was cross-checking and to me it wasn't any more than just a guy checking off on his check. You see it a million times at the other end with (Detroit's Chris Chelios) taking liberties at the same degree -- or worse -- and not being called.

"We'll adjust our game plan and our personnel accordingly."

Lowe pointed his comments, indirectly, anyway, at Brendan Shanahan by using the "competition committee" card:

April 29, Edmonton Sun: "We had a hell of a game going up 1-0 and both calls leading to them getting back in the game were bad calls.

"In my mind, and I was part of the competition committee, they were very soft. It gave Detroit some momentum.

"We had the momentum. If the momentum changes because of us, well, shame on us. But when it changes because of the officiating ...''

It's never a matter of Detroit playing well with the Oilers. It's always the officials' faults.

"It's been intentional,'' he said. "For the most part the series is going well. To me, it's about the players. They're the story. Some guys want to stick their nose in because the limelight is on. But this is their time of year, their time to enjoy. It's management's time to sit back and assess,'' said the GM who headed over to London last night to watch next-year Oiler Robbie Schremp.

He's definitely not sticking his nose in this series, no, he'd never do that...